Earthly Equine Evolution

[labelwench]

While I do have a mobile laptop, my first thoughts would be that the scale of the image would not register as being of any significance to the horse.

Handy, however, was quite observant when I changed into a warmer jacket for yesterday's chill weather and expressed great interest in making a tactile examination of this ability that I have to change my 'coat color', lol. Of course, the talents of the 'lead horse' must be carefully observed, based on what Madelaine is explaining to him. When he fist went to move away from me on our early introductions, the mare made audible comment, and the foal froze in place, allowing me to touch and restrain him, at her strong suggestion.

Not that he is going to be a docile submissive. I observe him out in the pen, testing the boundaries of his mother's influence, while Madelaine is chasing in pursuit, shaking her head in admonition. I rather suspect he is going to keep both of us busy for a while.

Here is the link to his web page, my first effort at such doings, and which shall be receiving updates as his life journey progresses.

http://sites.google.com/site/lorrina...kon-s-handyman

[labelwench]

Watching Handy grow in strength and confidence daily is most educational. Although I have a strong background in equine study, horses, as humans, are each unique, and while we may generalize our statements and observations, there is nothing to compare with sharing the journey.

To develop a relationship of trust, with any being, of any species, requires a personal investment of time and energy. I have known that bond with a few in my life, and some of the other promising relationships were interrupted, some by my own choice and others by providence, or however you care to name the element of chance as it weaves through our lives.

It is my hope and desire that I may be able to forge a bond with the triad of horses that I have now, and which I plan to maintain. The start is well established and there is but one more parting to be made.

Kinnick, the sire of Handy, shall be gelded on May 11th, and when an appropriate circumstance is selected, shall be going to a new home. As a stallion, he has had to live an isolated life, which is not natural to the horse, they being herd animals. As a gelding, he shall finally be able to socialize with his own kind, 24/7. He has a kind nature and should adapt well to this change of status.

Handy, is also a colt, or entire male, but is no threat to the female population for some time yet, lol, and he shall be gelded next year, as the Yukon has few employment opportunities for a stallion. He shall be able to co-habit with his Mom and his aunt, as a natural group, very much as nature intended.

From past conversations, I quite understand that many gentlemen regard such emasculating of a male animal to be some cruel extension of the female nature, yet it is nature that determines very few male horses are granted opportunity to procreate. In the wild, males must fight for mares, and many are injured or crippled, leading to death. The rest form bachelor groups.

In deciding to throw in with our kind, as opportunity for survival, the horse has made many such compromises. Few have opportunity to procreate, mare or stallion, unless we bid it be so, and geldings are the mount of choice for most, as the lack of testosterone renders them easily manageable by comparison to a stallion, or even the mare when she experiences estrus. Yet, in our care, far more males escape injury or death, and the horse experiences a longer life, by our protection and care.



Handy, on a frosty morning, May5th, 2010

[labelwench]

The newest earthly equine is evolving, lol.

Handy and Madelaine are in an enclosure that consists of two connected pens, with an attached run-in shed and the land has a gentle slope. This morning, I observed as the colt, after a night in the barn, was galloping around the pen in figure 8's, looping the first pen in a clockwise direction, while traveling on his right lead, then scooting through the gate into the adjoining pen, changing to his left lead for the counter-clockwise direction. As he completed that lap, he would duck back through the opening and resume the pattern, consistently changing his leading legs to remain balanced.

Only experienced horsemen will appreciate just how uncommon it is to find a horse at five days with such a refined sense of balance and timing. Handy, is indeed, very handy on his feet. Youngsters also tend to have a few mishaps, as they miscalculate their speed and stopping distance. So far, this colt shows amazing proprioceptive sense in that I have not seen him execute any of the usual faux pas.

I've worked with quite a few horses and seen many more, this being the ninth foal that I have raised. It takes quite a bit to impress me, but Handy is definitely working on it. He shows excellent potential to be a most versatile horse.

[RascalPuff]

SIX STAGES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE, SHOWING GRADUAL INCREASE IN SIZE
(After Lull and Matthew.)
1. Four-toed horse, Eohippus, about one foot high. Lower Eocene, N. America.
2. Another four-toed horse, Orohippus, a little over a foot high. Middle Eocene, N. America.
3. Three-toed horse, Mesohippus, about the size of a sheep. Middle Oligocene, N. America.
4. Three-toed horse, Merychippus, Miocene, N. America. Only one toe reaches the ground on each foot, but the remains of two others are prominent.
5. The first one-toed horse, Pliohippus, about forty inches high at the shoulder. Pliocene, N. America.
6. The modern horse, running on the third digit of each foot.

(Excerpt from J. Arthur Thompson's 'Outline of Science' - Gutenberg Project Public Domain)

Best regards,
- RP

[labelwench]

The vet, having performed the gelding operation on my male horse, gave him an injection of phenylbutazone to assist with discomfort and to reduce the swelling which often accompanies such procedure, along with instructions to follow-up with a paste medication of the same, morning and night for 5-7 days as required.

In most cases, the medication can be administered orally by squeezing the measured amount of paste into the mouth of the horse directly from the tube in which it is marketed exactly for such application.

The following morning, the horse made abundantly evident that I could stick that tube anywhere else, save in his mouth, lol, and preferably apply such device to my own person rather than his. There being several strong arm techniques of which I am knowledgeable, still, it was my preference to avoid causing the horse further stress, so my first alternate tactic was to mix the medication into a preferred pelleted feed.

This went over like a lead balloon, as the horse detected the strong medication and promptly scattered the contents, rooting through the pellets on the ground for bits that were uncontaminated. Still, I withheld his breakfast for an hour, and noted that most of the pellets were eventually gone, although I doubted he had received the full dose.

For the evening dose, I looked into the pantry, and found that I still had some molasses on hand, although after a considerable period of storage, it was most reluctant to pour. One minute in the microwave resolved that issue, and I dissolved a liberal amount into a cup of warm water before pouring this over the medicated pellets and stirring the lot into a fragrant mash.

The horse eyed the offering with suspicion, never having tasted molasses before, and gave the pan the same treatment as before, only this time, upon return, there was no evidence of any remains left on the ground. The following morning, I prepared the same mixture, and Kinnick not only refrained from upending the pan, but actually licked the feed bowl clean while I was cleaning his pen and observing.

Now he greets me at the gate for his 'treat'- ment, and his recovery from surgery has been without complication and without swelling. This lady vet has proven to be the most competent of several that I have used, and her technique of rolling the horse right over onto his back for the surgery, made the process the most expeditious of any I have witnessed before. She is also a horsewoman, in addition to being a large animal practitioner, and her understanding of equine psychology stands her in good stead.

Soon, my horse will be going to a new home, and a new life, where he will enjoy the gregarious herd life that is more natural to the species, rather than the isolation of a stallion in a limited breeding situation.

[RascalPuff]

AN EASY OUTLINE OF EVOLUTION, by Dennis Hird, M.A., copyright 1903

We may take the horse as a good example of Evolution. We are familiar with the horse as an animal with only one toe. But there is much evidence that it was not always so.
[page] 13

From the time of Julius Cæsar until now many horses have had more than one toe. Examples could be greatly multiplied, but we will trace the pedigree of the horse back wards.

The large hoof of a horse is said to be the enlarged nail of the middle finger, the other four fingers or toes having been lost. In tracing this do cannot do better than follow Huxley's account. Let us first look at the fore limb. In most four-footed animals (called quadrupeds) the forearm contains two distinct bones called the radius and the ulna (see Fig. 1) The corresponding region of the horse at first seems to possess but one bone. Carefully looking, however, we see in this bone a part which clearly answers to the upper end of the ulna. This is closely united with the
THE SKELETON (AFTER HOLDER)
FIGURE 1.
[page] 14
chief mass of bone which represents the radius, and runs out into a slender shaft which may be traced for some distance downwards upon the back of the radius, and then, in most cases, it thins out and vanishes. Looking still more closely, we see that a small part of the lower end of the bone of the horse's fore-arm, which is only distinct in a very young foal, is really the lower extremity of the ulna. So that clearly the horse once had two bones in this region of the fore-arm, as we have.

What is commonly called the knee of the horse is its wrist. The "cannon bone" answers to the middle bone of the five metacarpal bones which support the palm of the hand in ourselves. The "pastern," "coronary," and "coffin" bones in the horse answer to the joints of our middle fingers, while the hoof is simply a greatly enlarged and thickened nail. But if what lies beneath the horse's "knee" thus corresponds to the middle finger in ourselves, what has become of the four other fingers (often called digits)? We find in the places of the second and fourth digits only two slender splint-like bones, which taper to their lower ends and bear no finger joints. (The bones between these joints are called phalanges.)

Sometimes small bony or gristly little knots are to be found at the bases of these two splints, and it is likely that these represent what is left of the first and fifth digits. Thus the part of a horse's skeleton which corresponds with that of the human hand contains one overgrown middle digit and at least two imperfect side digits, and these answer respectively to the third, the second, and the fourth fingers in man.
The same kind of changes can be traced in the hind limb. We must omit the evidence of the teeth.

When America was first discovered, there were no traces of the existing horse to be found in that country. For some reason, in this ancient home of the horse the animal had died out. Now, America has wonderful deposits
[page] 15
admirably suited for preserving the remains of animals, so that remains have been found well preserved, and in great numbers. Professor Marsh has carefully examined and collected these fossils, and in Yale museum are to be seen the specimens which tell the following wonderful facts.
The forms which he found carry us from the top to the bottom of the bed of rocks called tertiary. Nearest the top there is the true horse. Next we have the horse of the Pliocene rocks, the Pliohippus (hippus means horse); its limbs differ slightly from those of the ordinary horse of the present day. Then, lower down in the same rocks, comes the Protohippus, which represents the one found in Europe, called Hipparion, having one large digit and two small ones on each foot. Going still lower down, and turning up the Miocene rocks, they found the Miohippus. This corresponds pretty nearly with one found in Europe called the Anchitherium. It presents three complete toes, and higher up there is a small rudiment of that digit we call our little finger.
Lower still in the Miocene rocks is found an older form of horse, the Mesohippus. It has three toes in front with a large splint of bone, and three toes on the hind limbs. Here the radius and ulna are quite distinct bones.

But in the next bed of rocks, the Eocene, a still more important discovery was made. Here was found the Orohippus, which has four complete toes on the fore limb and three toes on the hind limb. This animal was hardly as big as an ordinary fox.
In the lowest layers of the Eocene rocks Professor Marsh found remains of the Eohippus. This is the oldest and the smallest form, the animal being about the size of a very small fox. Three species are known. The Eohippus has the feet, in the main features, very similar to the Orohippus; in each genus four well-developed toes in front and three behind, but the Eohippus has a remnant of the first digit.
[page] 16
These remains are from the Coryphodon bed or lower Eocene of New Mexico. This bed is below that in which the Orohippus occurs.
The oldest ancestor of the horse, as yet undiscovered, undoubtedly had five toes on each foot, and probably was not larger than a rabbit, perhaps much smaller (American Journal of Science, November, 1876, and April, 1892).

These discoveries of the many stages of the horse are of the highest value to science. They answer every expectation of the doctrine of Evolution; and if we can say of anything that it is proved, we certainly can say it of descent by modifications in the case of the horse.
The history of any species of animal, such as this just given, is called its phylogeny.

The history of the growth of any one individual is called ontogeny.

Now, it is an established fact that each individual organism in its ontogeny frequently repeats the history of the development of its ancestors. If an examination is made of a very young foal before its birth (called the embryo or foetus), it is found to have five toes.

Nothing could be clearer. From the beds of the rocks has come the evidence of the slow formation of the horse from a five-toed animal. Every foal now living was also itself a five-toed animal.

After this striking example of the unfolding and changing of one form of life, we may take quite a different attitude, and see if there is any connection, in a wide sense, between the different animal groups. We must remember always that, before we can form any opinion on such a subject, we must examine the whole known life of the animals, and we before birth (which is called the life of the embryo) often reveal connections whose existence otherwise would not be suspected.

Best regards,
- RP

[labelwench]

Toes

The ancestors of the horse came to walk only on the end of the third toe and both side toes. Skeletal remnants show obvious wear on the back of both sides of metacarpal and metatarsal bones, commonly called the “splint bones”. They are the remnants of the second and the fourth toe. Modern horses retain the splint bones; it is often believed that they are a useless attachment, but they in fact play an important role in supporting the carpal joints (front knee) and even the tarsal joints (hock).

Since then, as the number of equid fossils has increased, the actual evolutionary progression from Hyracotherium to Equus has been discovered to be much more complex and multi-branched than was initially supposed. The straight, direct progression from the former to the latter has been replaced by a more elaborate model with numerous branches in different directions, of which the modern horse is only one of many. It was first recognized by George Gaylord Simpson in 1951[8] that the modern horse was not the "goal" of the entire lineage of equids,[9] it is simply the only genus of the many horse lineages that has survived.

Detailed fossil information on the rate and distribution of new equid species has also revealed that the progression between species was not as smooth and consistent as was once believed. Although some transitions, such as that of Dinohippus to Equus, were indeed gradual progressions, a number of others, such as that of Epihippus to Mesohippus, were relatively abrupt and sudden in geologic time, taking place over only a few million years. Both anagenesis (gradual change in an entire population's gene frequency) and cladogenesis (a population "splitting" into two distinct evolutionary branches) occurred, and many species coexisted with "ancestor" species at various times. The change in equids' traits was also not always a "straight line" from Hyracotherium to Equus: some traits reversed themselves at various points in the evolution of new equid species, such as size and the presence of facial fossae, and it is only in retrospect that certain evolutionary trends can be recognized.[10]

Since developing a relationship with man, the hoof of the horse has been much used and abused in the process of placing shoes, usually of metal, upon it's natural foot, and these attached by various means, some of which are damaging to the horse, when done without proper skill and experience. This process was undertaken to allow man to take the horse into conditions where nature had not intended the animal to spend protracted lengths of time, otherwise it would have evolved to the task.

Among horsemen, it is an insider joke that when you have 12 farriers in the room, you shall surely have 13 opinions, and this in regard to the very inexact science of tampering with the feet of a horse. The one thing that all can agree upon, however, is the adage, 'No Hoof, No Horse'. Knowledgeable breeders have ever assessed a horse from the ground up, first feet, then teeth, then eyes and hearing, and proceeding thence unto the rest of the functional anatomy. 'Pretty is as pretty does', and 'A Good Horse Is Never The Wrong Breed Or Color' are also adages that pretty much sum up the important points when evaluating the horse as relates form to function.

I have ever breed horses from the ground up, and save in the wettest of conditions, which soften the hoof and make it sensitive to stone bruising, I have not needed to shoe my horses. Interesting to learn recently, from a young lady who is planning to attend a farrier college, that the latest and newest trend in hoof care, is 'Natural Hoof', and that they are only now teaching the proper trimming of the bare and natural foot of the horse, something which a number of us have been doing all along.

The irony is not lost upon us.....

Regards,

Labelwench

[labelwench]

[I]The following event is taken from Jeannette Walls book, Half Broke Horses. The lady in the telling is Jeannette's grandmother.[ LW/I]

When I’d been in Red Lake a month, I went over to the town hall to pick up my first paycheck. A corral was next to the building, and inside it stood a small sorrel mustang, all veined up and with saddle sweat still on his back. When he saw me, he gave me a baleful look, ears flat, and I could tell right off that was one ornery horse.

Inside the hall, a couple of deputies were lounging by a desk, hats tilted back and pants tucked into their boots. When I introduced myself, one of them-----a skinny guy with rooster legs and close-set eyes----said, “I hear you come all the way from Chicago to teach us hicks a thing or two.”

“I’m just a hardworking gal here for her paycheck,” I said.

“Before you get it, you needs to pass a simple test first.”

“What test?”

“Ride that there little fella out in the corral.”

I could tell from their sidelong glances Rooster Legs and his buddy were giving each other that they thought they were going to play a prank on the greenhorn schoolteacher. I could tell they figured I was a know-it-all about reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, so they were going to put this city girl in her place when it came to the fourth R----riding.

I decided to play along with them and we’d see who got the last laugh. Fluttering my eyes and acting all coy, I said this test seemed highly unusual, but I supposed I could give the horse a try since I had ridden before, and I assumed he was a gentle creature.

“Gentle as a baby’s fart,” Rooster said.

I had on a loose dress and my sensible schoolteacher shoes. “I’m not wearing riding clothes,” I said, “but if he is as advertised, I guess I could trot him around a bit.”

‘You could ride this horse in your pajamas,” Rooster said with a smirk.

I followed the two comedians out to the corral, and while they saddled up the mustang, I went over to a hedge of juniper, broke off a nice limber branch, and stripped the twigs from it.

“Ready to pass your test, ma’am?” Rooster asked. He thought the impending disaster was going to be so hilarious that he could barely contain himself.

The mustang was standing stock-still but watching me out of the corner of his eye. He was just another half-broke horse, and I’d seen plenty of them in my lifetime. I hiked up my skirt and shortened the rein, twisting the horse’s head to the right so he couldn’t swing his hindquarters away.

As soon as I got my foot into the stirrup, he moved off, but I had him by the mane and I swung into the saddle. He immediately started bucking. By now the two guys were splitting their sides with laughter, but I paid them no mind. The way to stop a horse from bucking was to get his head up---he had to drop it to kick out with his hindquarters---and then send him forward. I popped the horse hard in the mouth with the reins, which jerked his head right up, and whaled his rump with the juniper branch.

That got the little varmint’s attention---and the comedians’ as well. We set off at a good gallop, but he was still throwing his shoulders around and fishtailing. I was following the motion, riding with my upper body loose, my heels jammed down, and my legs clamped like a vise around his sides. Rooster and his buddy were not going to be seeing any daylight between me and the saddle.

Each time I sensed the small hesitation that meant a buck was coming, I popped the horse’s mouth and whaled his rear again, and he soon learned that the only way out for him was to do what I wanted him to do. In no time he settled, and I patted his neck.

I walked the mustang back to the comedians, who were no longer laughing. Both of them had lost their patter. They were even a little slack-jawed. I could tell it was killing them that I could get the best of a horse that must have given them plenty of trouble, but I didn’t rub it in.

“Nice little pony,” I said. “Can I have my paycheck now? “

[labelwench]

Handy, the colt born on May 1st, is growing rapidly. In the 35 days since his birth, I estimate that his body weight has more than doubled, as foals can gain from 1 1/2 to 3 lbs per day on the rich milk of the mare and also with access to forage and concentrates. Madelaine is consuming timothy/brome hay free choice at 30-35 lbs daily, as well as receiving 4 lbs of corn/oats/barley top-dressed with canola oil, divided over 3 feedings, and some grazing time daily on the grass that has sprung up in the last few weeks.

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-he...oals-1320.aspx

The foal has been nibbling the hay since one week of age, and offered complete feed pellets daily, yet demonstrates a preference for green grass, which is a natural food source for young horses and the new growth will provide him with plenty of vitamins and minerals. They also have access to a salt/mineral lick and a large tank of water, topped up every couple of days from our deep well.

In the wild, a foal will travel with the herd, often up to 20 miles in a day, so it is no hardship for Handy to come along when Madelaine is taken out for exercise. We live in an area that offers trails away from traveled roads and today we went 3 km along forest trails. Madelaine is delighted to have something to do, after her time of waiting out the pregnancy and giving birth. She is an attentive mother, but not an anxious one, and she stands tied quietly while being groomed and saddled as Handy romps nearby, investigating everything. He is a very curious and bold fellow, even walking into the dark opening of the small barn on his own. On the trail, he will run ahead of us 50 yards or so, before halting to be sure that we are following.

Upon our return, it was 2:30 p.m. and into the time of day when horses are relaxed. After the ride, it was a good opportunity to trim Madelaine's hooves and we did her fronts while Handy watched the procedure with interest. I turned Madelaine free to graze and Handy emulated his mother. He also seemed quite mellow after our foray to the forest, so I approached him with the lead rope and he made no protest as I clipped it the halter which he wears.

To date, I have not been trying to make him go anywhere in particular, content merely to have him not resist the pressure of the rope as we follow the general direction of his mother, sometimes angling away, halting and standing, as he learns that the rope is a limiter of sorts, but not a fearful or forceful thing. Today, we went farther from his dam before returning to her after each divergence, and Handy seemed quite understanding of the process and accepted my suggestions.

With the foal growing so rapidly, his halter needs adjusting at one or more of the three adjustment points every few days. Today, I noted the nose band could be let out. Previously, I had performed this work within the confines of the barn, sometimes removing the halter if one of the trickier to access buckles was the one in need of resizing. Today, I adjusted the strap while Handy stood by me, still attached to the lead rope. He made no fuss as my hands were moving across his field of vision as I wrestled with the finnicky little piece of hardware. One more lap on the lead rope, and I returned him to his mother and liberty.

He did not scamper off, merely stood for a few seconds and then tucked his head under Madelaine's flank and began to nurse.

After a workout like that, any fellow would be in need of a drink.....

[RascalPuff]

Horse Evolution

by Kathleen HuntCopyright ©1995-2003
[Article last updated: January 4, 1995]

his is a companion file for the Transitional Fossils FAQ and is part of the Fossil Horses FAQs. In this post I will try to describe the modern view of evolution within the horse family. I apologize in advance for the length; I didn't want to cut it down any more than this, because horse evolution has been oversimplified too many times already. I wanted people to see some of the detail and complexity of the fossil record of a fairly well known vertebrate group. (In fact, even at this length, this post is still only a summary!) People who are in a hurry may just want to read the intro and summary and look at the tree.

In the 1870's, the paleontologist O.C. Marsh published a description of newly discovered horse fossils from North America. At the time, very few transitional fossils were known, apart from Archeopteryx. The sequence of horse fossils that Marsh described (and that T.H. Huxley popularized) was a striking example of evolution taking place in a single lineage. Here, one could see the fossil species "Eohippus" transformed into an almost totally different-looking (and very familiar) descendent, Equus, through a series of clear intermediates. Biologists and interested laypeople were justifiably excited. Some years later, the American Museum of Natural History assembled a famous exhibit of these fossil horses, designed to show gradual evolution from "Eohippus" (now called Hyracotherium) to modern Equus. Such exhibits focussed attention on the horse family not only as evidence for evolution per se, but also specifically as a model of gradual, straight-line evolution, with Equus being the "goal" of equine evolution. This story of the horse family was soon included in all biology textbooks.



As new fossils were discovered, though, it became clear that the old model of horse evolution was a serious oversimplification. The ancestors of the modern horse were roughly what that series showed, and were clear evidence that evolution had occurred. But it was misleading to portray horse evolution in that smooth straight line, for two reasons:

1. First, horse evolution didn't proceed in a straight line. We now know of many other branches of horse evolution. Our familiar Equus is merely one twig on a once-flourishing bush of equine species. We only have the illusion of straight-line evolution because Equus is the only twig that survived. (See Gould's essay "Life's Little Joke" in Bully for Brontosaurus for more on this topic.)
2. Second, horse evolution was not smooth and gradual. Different traits evolved at different rates, didn't always evolve together, and occasionally reversed "direction". Also, horse species did not always come into being by gradual transformation ("anagenesis") of their ancestors; instead, sometimes new species "split off" from ancestors ("cladogenesis") and then co-existed with those ancestors for some time. Some species arose gradually, others suddenly.

Overall, the horse family demonstrates the diversity of evolutionary mechanisms, and it would be misleading -- and would be a real pity -- to reduce it to an oversimplified straight-line diagram.
With this in mind, I'll take you through a tour of the major genera of the horse family, Equidae. CAUTION: I will place emphasis on those genera that led to the modern Equus. Do not be misled into thinking that Equus was the target of evolution! Bear in mind that there are other major branches of the horse tree that I will mention only in passing. (See the horse tree for a lovely ASCII depiction.)
Small preface: All equids (members of the family Equidae) are perissodactyls -- members of the order of hoofed animals that bear their weight on the central 3rd toe. (Other perissodactyls are tapirs and rhinos, and possibly hyraxes.) The most modern equids (descendents of Parahippus) are called "equines". Strictly speaking, only the very modern genus Equus contains "horses", but I will call all equids "horses" rather indiscriminately.
Most horse species, including all the ancestors of Equus, arose in North America.
II. Timescale and Horse Family Tree

Recent10,000 years ago to presentPleistocene2.5-0.01 My (million years ago)Pliocene5.3-2.5 MyMiocene24-5.3 MyOligocene34-24 MyEocene54-34 My
And here's the tree...note that the timescale is a bit weird (e.g. the Oligocene is compressed almost to nothing) to keep it from being too long. All the names on the tree are genus names, so recall that each genus encompasses a cluster of closely related species.
The is a brief description of the tree for those who are visually impaired. Hyracotherium is shown giving rise to three lineages. Two lineages quickly go extinct. The third branches many times. There are many branches alive during most times until two million years ago when only the various species of Equus remain.

Best regards,
- RP